frouth novel
Stone of hope
Paranormal Romance
Book 4 stones of iona
Only through hope can one see their true love.
Chapter 1
Never forget, words are not the reality. Only reality is reality. Picture symbols are the idea. Words are confusion. Evie MacDougall tiptoed past the familiar entry to the Egyptian display in the National Museum of Science in Miami, Florida, as her brother Ewan bumped into her. “Shhh, Ma will find us.” Douglas and his younger sister, Katherine, better known as Kat, brought up the rear of the entourage. Doug, Ewan’s ever-present shadow and all-time co-conspirator, kept a lookout in case either mother found them in the newer section of the museum—forbidden for them to enter and oh so tempting for the teens. Evie moved along as she whispered to her brother, “Don’t want Ma to catch us. She’s busy setting up her display.” Doug followed, holding his younger sister Kat’s hand. “Yeah, my ma would tan my hide if she found us in here.” Ewan turned and hissed, “Tanned hides. Ha! My da’s wallop is harder than yers.” Colin MacDougall, their da, and laird were along for this trip with Evie’s ma, Brielle, plus Doug and Kat’s ma, Marie. The three adults were next door setting up Evie’s ma’s newest display on Scottish history and lore from their home, Dunstaffnage Castle, Scotland. It was not only a setup of one stop on the museum tour but also a chance for the entire family to visit Uncle Dom, Dominic DeVolt, her mother’s brother, who was Air Force Special Ops, and the most adventurous uncle, Evie could ever hope for. As Evie peered into the display, her twin brother Ewan stepped behind her. “I don’t get what ye see in this part of the museum. Egypt is less fun than Scotland, and everything is even older.” Kat moved closer to Ewan. As he kept a look out, Doug bumped into her. Keeping her eyes on the Egyptian display, Evie replied to her brother. “It is because it’s older that makes it that much more interesting, brother.” Ewan rolled his eyes but peered into the display as his sister crept from around the statue of Horus and approached the large, major attraction—the Eye of Ra. Evie loved this part of the museum; the artifacts traveled with them from Houston to Florida for another tour stop, and she would have the chance to spend more time with them. Her eyes traveled over to the storyboard display of Moira White. Her story amazed Evie. The youthful thirteen-year-old admired the young woman from the past who, in her early twenties, single-handedly led her hired crew, excavating one of the largest tombs in Egypt—the tomb of Sheshonq II, a previously unknown northern king. The wealth found rivaled Tutankhamun’s find. Ewan came and stood beside her. “Ye are always staring at her. Why?” “She’s inspiring. Her uncle raised her after she lost her family, yet she still became successful even when that French archeologist, Pierre Lenoir, stole her digs after her uncle died. Pierre even accused her of stealing his notes, which led to her notable discovery. Then she mysteriously disappeared.” She sighed. “I feel it in my bones. Pierre was a liar and a cheat regardless of how history wrote the story.”Evie glanced at the picture of Moira White, who stood on a flat surface that appeared to be part of the top of a pyramid in Egypt. The woman had her back half to the camera, so the side of her face showed over her shoulder. She stood overlooking the valley in Cairo with the Nile River flowing through. She was so high up from the river that it looked like a small ribbon. She wore black peep-toe pumps with a white cotton nineteen-thirties day dress. She’d pulled her hair back in the flapperesk style with set curls on her forehead. The shot seemed to catch her just as she turned to the camera to say something witty. Evie’s gaze traveled back to the Eye of Ra. The artifact drew her since she’d first spied it months ago. Like a moth to the flame, she had to see it again. Her comrades, now more confident on their concealed adventure, crept closer as Evie stood staring at the large golden eye with black details painted to depict the infamous Eye of Ra. Kat, Evie’s best friend forever, stood beside her, staring into the eye. “I don’t understand why ye want to stare at an eye constantly. It creeps me out.” She shivered. “It’s like it’s looking at me.” Ewan groaned. “That’s because it is.” He pinched Kat. She squealed loudly. As it echoed throughout the museum, Evie and Doug loudly sputtered, “Shhh.” Evie turned back to the Eye of Ra and felt something pull in her. She couldn’t define it, but this feeling drew her in as if it tried to tell her something. Evie closed her eyes and opened her mind to the sensation. Blessed with Fae’s powers, Evie secretly worked with Brigid, the family Fae assigned to the MacDougall family, to help protect the Stones of Iona, to hone and control her powers—something the Fae gave to few humans. And her activities her parents didn’t know she did in secret. Brigid always told her to focus on the strongest feeling, the one trying to reach her, which spoke the loudest. Hope echoed, so she focused on hope. Warmth spread through her. Her arms rose of their own accord, reaching for the Eye of Ra. As she opened her eyes, all in the room gasped. In the center of the eye was a picture. She tilted her head to the side, and it wasn’t just a picture; it was a movie. A woman bent over the sarcophagus, brushing sand with a large brush while humming. The wall behind her resembled the picture in the Egyptian display, filled with shapes and figures lined up in rows. Light cast her room on a soft yellow glow, and light’s shadows danced across the wall behind her as if a slight breeze had shifted candlelight. The woman turned to speak to someone, and the kids got their first glimpse of whom they spied on. Ewan spoke from beside her. “I’ll be damned. That’s the lady. The one in the display, the White lady.” Doug froze, staring, but it was Kat who spoke. “Isn’t she from the nineteen-thirties? Why are we seeing her movie in the eyeball?” Evie shook her head. “It’s not a movie, Kat. It’s her in real life.” Evie gasped as reality hit her. “Guys, I found a portal, a Fae time portal to Egypt. But Egypt of the nineteen-thirties.” Ewan grabbed her arms. “Close it, Evie. Ye have to close it.” He pulled and turned her to him.When her brother turned her, she lost contact with the eye. The movie disappeared. The portal closed. Dazed, Evie frowned at her brother, her lifelong friend and confidant. A tear escaped and trailed down her cheek. “God, Ewan, ye can’t tell. I didn’t mean to open it. It just happened.” Ewan hugged her. “It’s okay, Evie.” He glared at Doug and Kat. “We tell no one. It’s our secret.” Doug and Kat nodded, speaking together. “Aye.”
****
Colin stood back as his wife placed the last artifact, completing the display for Dunstaffnage’s Chapel in the Woods. It was Brielle’s first major historical project and her proudest work. Not that it had anything to do with how she met her true love and made their perfect family. She stood in the life-sized partial replica of the decorative historical chapel when he approached, wrapped his muscular arms around his wife’s tiny waist, and whispered in her ear, “Every time ye build this, I get goosebumps standing in it no matter where we are.” He kissed her ear and trailed kisses down her neck, enticing a shiver. “Makes me want ye all over again as if we had just met and fallen in love for the first time.” She turned in his arms and kissed him. “Husband, I feel the same way.” Marie strode into the display and stood next to them. “If ye two keep that up, we’ll never finish setting up the display. Then we’ll miss dinner with Dominic.” Bree glanced around, moving out of the chapel replica. “Speaking of dinner, where are the kids?” Colin followed not far behind and spotted the group of teens entering the Scottish display from the side. A side they should not be coming from. Not saying anything, he caught his son Ewan’s eye and nodded to the side. Telling him to move along before their mother found out they were in the forbidden area. Colin loudly spoke as he traveled opposite from the group of wayward teens. “I’m sure they are here, just behind something. Ye have added so many more artifacts over the years. I wonder if ye left anything at Dunstaffnage or if the grounds will be the same.” Bree turned to him. “We returned all the soil and landscaping, Colin. You know this.” He smiled and caressed her face, then deeply kissed her. Something he enjoyed more over time. A long groan interrupted the kiss. “Eww, do they ever stop?” Doug leaned against the display of the Viking longboat found close to Dunstaffnage Castle. Marie and Bree found it a couple of years ago and suspected it might be the burial spot of Ainslie’s husband, Rannick, who lived in the Viking times. Ainslie was Colin’s sister, who had traveled back in time to the Vikings on the trip to save Brielle from the evil Fae, where they recovered the Stone of Lust for safekeeping. Colin didn’t favor thinking of the Viking time trip, a hard one for Bree. And one where he’d left his sister in the past with her true love. The boat was a reminder that his sister wasn’t alive. He preferred to think of her as living in Viking time—but now. Marie barked, scolding her son. “No, and don’t lean on the exhibit. That boat is old.” Doug shrugged. “Yeah, Ma, I get it. Everything here is old.” Marie hugged her son. “Ye should consider yerself so lucky, friends and parents who are in love.” Kat walked by her ma and brother. “I think it's romantic how everyone found their true loves. I hope to do that someday.” Doug huffed a laugh. “Ye’ll be lucky to find yer sock for yer shoe in the morning before ye find true love.” Kat hit her brother, and short fisticuffs ensued. Marie stepped between the two wrangling them to a stop. Noting she stood off to the side, Colin approached his daughter during the chaos. “Ye’re quiet today, Evie. Anything wrong?” He kept a closer eye on his daughter since the last time the Fae were active when they recovered a Stone of Iona. The family recovered the stones of Love, Fear, and Lust for the good Fae. Still not recovered were Hope, Faith, Doubt, and Destiny. It’d been years since anything last occurred. After the previous encounter with the Fae, he and Bree closely watched their twins, Evie and Ewan. Brigid, the family Fae, blessed the twins with Fae powers. Something Colin wasn’t happy with but learned to live with over time. While Evie’s powers had surfaced instantly, Ewan’s hadn’t, and Colin hoped to keep it that way. Evie shocked him and Bree the first time she displayed Fae powers when she separated Bree’s Iona Stone in half and magically merged it again, whole. Brigid told her it was a power she would need in the future, a future yet to occur. Evie peeked at her da and blushed. “Nothing, Da. Just tired, I guess.” Colin gathered his teen daughter in his arms and squeezed her once. Something he often did to convey his love for her without using embarrassing words the teen found awkward but craved all the same. “Ahh, I suspect there may be more to it than ye’re just tired, but I’ll allow it to slide. We have to get going to meet Uncle Dom.” Evie peeked at her father and grinned. He placed his finger on her nose and bent close. “Ye’d be less tired if ye stayed away from the Egyptian display, Evie.” She gasped. Colin covered it up by announcing, “Time to go. Our visit with Dom has been long coming. Let’s head out to dinner; I’m famished.” Everyone filed out of the museum, the evening early, and a promise of a fun time with the favored Uncle Dom.
Never forget, words are not the reality. Only reality is reality. Picture symbols are the idea. Words are confusion. Evie MacDougall tiptoed past the familiar entry to the Egyptian display in the National Museum of Science in Miami, Florida, as her brother Ewan bumped into her. “Shhh, Ma will find us.” Douglas and his younger sister, Katherine, better known as Kat, brought up the rear of the entourage. Doug, Ewan’s ever-present shadow and all-time co-conspirator, kept a lookout in case either mother found them in the newer section of the museum—forbidden for them to enter and oh so tempting for the teens. Evie moved along as she whispered to her brother, “Don’t want Ma to catch us. She’s busy setting up her display.” Doug followed, holding his younger sister Kat’s hand. “Yeah, my ma would tan my hide if she found us in here.” Ewan turned and hissed, “Tanned hides. Ha! My da’s wallop is harder than yers.” Colin MacDougall, their da, and laird were along for this trip with Evie’s ma, Brielle, plus Doug and Kat’s ma, Marie. The three adults were next door setting up Evie’s ma’s newest display on Scottish history and lore from their home, Dunstaffnage Castle, Scotland. It was not only a setup of one stop on the museum tour but also a chance for the entire family to visit Uncle Dom, Dominic DeVolt, her mother’s brother, who was Air Force Special Ops, and the most adventurous uncle, Evie could ever hope for. As Evie peered into the display, her twin brother Ewan stepped behind her. “I don’t get what ye see in this part of the museum. Egypt is less fun than Scotland, and everything is even older.” Kat moved closer to Ewan. As he kept a look out, Doug bumped into her. Keeping her eyes on the Egyptian display, Evie replied to her brother. “It is because it’s older that makes it that much more interesting, brother.” Ewan rolled his eyes but peered into the display as his sister crept from around the statue of Horus and approached the large, major attraction—the Eye of Ra. Evie loved this part of the museum; the artifacts traveled with them from Houston to Florida for another tour stop, and she would have the chance to spend more time with them. Her eyes traveled over to the storyboard display of Moira White. Her story amazed Evie. The youthful thirteen-year-old admired the young woman from the past who, in her early twenties, single-handedly led her hired crew, excavating one of the largest tombs in Egypt—the tomb of Sheshonq II, a previously unknown northern king. The wealth found rivaled Tutankhamun’s find. Ewan came and stood beside her. “Ye are always staring at her. Why?” “She’s inspiring. Her uncle raised her after she lost her family, yet she still became successful even when that French archeologist, Pierre Lenoir, stole her digs after her uncle died. Pierre even accused her of stealing his notes, which led to her notable discovery. Then she mysteriously disappeared.” She sighed. “I feel it in my bones. Pierre was a liar and a cheat regardless of how history wrote the story.”Evie glanced at the picture of Moira White, who stood on a flat surface that appeared to be part of the top of a pyramid in Egypt. The woman had her back half to the camera, so the side of her face showed over her shoulder. She stood overlooking the valley in Cairo with the Nile River flowing through. She was so high up from the river that it looked like a small ribbon. She wore black peep-toe pumps with a white cotton nineteen-thirties day dress. She’d pulled her hair back in the flapperesk style with set curls on her forehead. The shot seemed to catch her just as she turned to the camera to say something witty. Evie’s gaze traveled back to the Eye of Ra. The artifact drew her since she’d first spied it months ago. Like a moth to the flame, she had to see it again. Her comrades, now more confident on their concealed adventure, crept closer as Evie stood staring at the large golden eye with black details painted to depict the infamous Eye of Ra. Kat, Evie’s best friend forever, stood beside her, staring into the eye. “I don’t understand why ye want to stare at an eye constantly. It creeps me out.” She shivered. “It’s like it’s looking at me.” Ewan groaned. “That’s because it is.” He pinched Kat. She squealed loudly. As it echoed throughout the museum, Evie and Doug loudly sputtered, “Shhh.” Evie turned back to the Eye of Ra and felt something pull in her. She couldn’t define it, but this feeling drew her in as if it tried to tell her something. Evie closed her eyes and opened her mind to the sensation. Blessed with Fae’s powers, Evie secretly worked with Brigid, the family Fae assigned to the MacDougall family, to help protect the Stones of Iona, to hone and control her powers—something the Fae gave to few humans. And her activities her parents didn’t know she did in secret. Brigid always told her to focus on the strongest feeling, the one trying to reach her, which spoke the loudest. Hope echoed, so she focused on hope. Warmth spread through her. Her arms rose of their own accord, reaching for the Eye of Ra. As she opened her eyes, all in the room gasped. In the center of the eye was a picture. She tilted her head to the side, and it wasn’t just a picture; it was a movie. A woman bent over the sarcophagus, brushing sand with a large brush while humming. The wall behind her resembled the picture in the Egyptian display, filled with shapes and figures lined up in rows. Light cast her room on a soft yellow glow, and light’s shadows danced across the wall behind her as if a slight breeze had shifted candlelight. The woman turned to speak to someone, and the kids got their first glimpse of whom they spied on. Ewan spoke from beside her. “I’ll be damned. That’s the lady. The one in the display, the White lady.” Doug froze, staring, but it was Kat who spoke. “Isn’t she from the nineteen-thirties? Why are we seeing her movie in the eyeball?” Evie shook her head. “It’s not a movie, Kat. It’s her in real life.” Evie gasped as reality hit her. “Guys, I found a portal, a Fae time portal to Egypt. But Egypt of the nineteen-thirties.” Ewan grabbed her arms. “Close it, Evie. Ye have to close it.” He pulled and turned her to him.When her brother turned her, she lost contact with the eye. The movie disappeared. The portal closed. Dazed, Evie frowned at her brother, her lifelong friend and confidant. A tear escaped and trailed down her cheek. “God, Ewan, ye can’t tell. I didn’t mean to open it. It just happened.” Ewan hugged her. “It’s okay, Evie.” He glared at Doug and Kat. “We tell no one. It’s our secret.” Doug and Kat nodded, speaking together. “Aye.”
****
Colin stood back as his wife placed the last artifact, completing the display for Dunstaffnage’s Chapel in the Woods. It was Brielle’s first major historical project and her proudest work. Not that it had anything to do with how she met her true love and made their perfect family. She stood in the life-sized partial replica of the decorative historical chapel when he approached, wrapped his muscular arms around his wife’s tiny waist, and whispered in her ear, “Every time ye build this, I get goosebumps standing in it no matter where we are.” He kissed her ear and trailed kisses down her neck, enticing a shiver. “Makes me want ye all over again as if we had just met and fallen in love for the first time.” She turned in his arms and kissed him. “Husband, I feel the same way.” Marie strode into the display and stood next to them. “If ye two keep that up, we’ll never finish setting up the display. Then we’ll miss dinner with Dominic.” Bree glanced around, moving out of the chapel replica. “Speaking of dinner, where are the kids?” Colin followed not far behind and spotted the group of teens entering the Scottish display from the side. A side they should not be coming from. Not saying anything, he caught his son Ewan’s eye and nodded to the side. Telling him to move along before their mother found out they were in the forbidden area. Colin loudly spoke as he traveled opposite from the group of wayward teens. “I’m sure they are here, just behind something. Ye have added so many more artifacts over the years. I wonder if ye left anything at Dunstaffnage or if the grounds will be the same.” Bree turned to him. “We returned all the soil and landscaping, Colin. You know this.” He smiled and caressed her face, then deeply kissed her. Something he enjoyed more over time. A long groan interrupted the kiss. “Eww, do they ever stop?” Doug leaned against the display of the Viking longboat found close to Dunstaffnage Castle. Marie and Bree found it a couple of years ago and suspected it might be the burial spot of Ainslie’s husband, Rannick, who lived in the Viking times. Ainslie was Colin’s sister, who had traveled back in time to the Vikings on the trip to save Brielle from the evil Fae, where they recovered the Stone of Lust for safekeeping. Colin didn’t favor thinking of the Viking time trip, a hard one for Bree. And one where he’d left his sister in the past with her true love. The boat was a reminder that his sister wasn’t alive. He preferred to think of her as living in Viking time—but now. Marie barked, scolding her son. “No, and don’t lean on the exhibit. That boat is old.” Doug shrugged. “Yeah, Ma, I get it. Everything here is old.” Marie hugged her son. “Ye should consider yerself so lucky, friends and parents who are in love.” Kat walked by her ma and brother. “I think it's romantic how everyone found their true loves. I hope to do that someday.” Doug huffed a laugh. “Ye’ll be lucky to find yer sock for yer shoe in the morning before ye find true love.” Kat hit her brother, and short fisticuffs ensued. Marie stepped between the two wrangling them to a stop. Noting she stood off to the side, Colin approached his daughter during the chaos. “Ye’re quiet today, Evie. Anything wrong?” He kept a closer eye on his daughter since the last time the Fae were active when they recovered a Stone of Iona. The family recovered the stones of Love, Fear, and Lust for the good Fae. Still not recovered were Hope, Faith, Doubt, and Destiny. It’d been years since anything last occurred. After the previous encounter with the Fae, he and Bree closely watched their twins, Evie and Ewan. Brigid, the family Fae, blessed the twins with Fae powers. Something Colin wasn’t happy with but learned to live with over time. While Evie’s powers had surfaced instantly, Ewan’s hadn’t, and Colin hoped to keep it that way. Evie shocked him and Bree the first time she displayed Fae powers when she separated Bree’s Iona Stone in half and magically merged it again, whole. Brigid told her it was a power she would need in the future, a future yet to occur. Evie peeked at her da and blushed. “Nothing, Da. Just tired, I guess.” Colin gathered his teen daughter in his arms and squeezed her once. Something he often did to convey his love for her without using embarrassing words the teen found awkward but craved all the same. “Ahh, I suspect there may be more to it than ye’re just tired, but I’ll allow it to slide. We have to get going to meet Uncle Dom.” Evie peeked at her father and grinned. He placed his finger on her nose and bent close. “Ye’d be less tired if ye stayed away from the Egyptian display, Evie.” She gasped. Colin covered it up by announcing, “Time to go. Our visit with Dom has been long coming. Let’s head out to dinner; I’m famished.” Everyone filed out of the museum, the evening early, and a promise of a fun time with the favored Uncle Dom.
I hope you enjoyed the first chapter of the next exciting story, Stone of Hope from the Stone of Iona Series.
The book will be released on January 13th, and you can pre-order a copy today by clicking here.
Thank you, and Happy Holidays!
Margaret Izard